|
Post by beetlehorn on Feb 11, 2012 7:32:39 GMT -8
Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I also appreciate the insight to your own experiences. Now I know Im' not alone, because your descriptions are very similar to mine. I guess this hobby/activity has it's cycles in every collector's experience. There are those that lose interest to the extent of leaving and never coming back to it. I think I will take a little break, (not totally), and just slow down a bit. Maybe then I can step back and find what really appealed to me in the first place. Tom
|
|
|
Post by papilio28570 on Feb 12, 2012 8:45:09 GMT -8
You never lose the desire to collect. What you lose is the time to collect and what you experience is the frustration. I took a break for ten plus years while building my landscape company. During that period, bugs ate the part of my collection which was housed in drawers but luckily, I had copies of most species in sealed Riker mounts.
Use my experience and be sure you safeguard your collection if you intend to take an extended sabbatical from your hobby. Ask a friend to care taker it for you or split it among willing friends if just one friend lacks the storage room.
|
|
|
Post by Khalid Fadil on Feb 23, 2012 0:38:19 GMT -8
I think we've all gone through this... I know I have and I'm writing to tell you its just a phase! I've been into collecting since a wee boy. Somewhere along my schooling years, I actually stopped. I believe it was because of the lack of outings which my parents usually organized. They were just getting more and more caught up in work. Weeks turned to months and eventually years and the interest just faded. My collection sat in darkness up till just a couple of years ago. I had finished with school and with all the free time on my hands, I began looking at butterfly and moth photos on the Internet. That was when it hit me. Like a switch which had been just turned on, I started smiling and asking myself where did all those wonderful days go. So, I brought out all of my specimens and equipment and I haven't stopped since. Plus, with my recently acquired driving license, I no longer need to depend on my parents for transportation! I can go where ever whenever! It'll pass, Tom... You have my word. Your collector-drive just needs a little break. Give yourself a few days off and see how things turn out from there.
|
|
|
Post by jackblack on Feb 28, 2012 3:32:02 GMT -8
I can relate to a lot of these comments. I started collecting over 25+ years ago , a hobby. Then through requests of collectors started to breed butterflies fpr sale , the buisiness grew and I applied to Gov`t for export permits , then my hobby grew into a commercial venture and a like a lot of things turned into a job , just work , so some of the fun started to leave me, I would discover a new sp or something unknown in my collection , so the thrill of the hunt chase started again , but all the time I was learning , studying , researching and publishing in more recent years , but being private nobdy pays you to research and publish , so from what started basically as a hobby stamp collector has turned into an obsession at first , commercial venture then to fund the research and publishing and then to make a living , the hobby part dies off but resurges on adding something new to the coll , dies down again and the hunt is on for the next adventure thrill of discovery , a lot of the time feels like work or just any other job , so where does one draw the line between hobby and self made proffesion , but being commercial does pay for some time spent on reserch but not enough as most research is a passion not a paid job.Unless one works for the Gov`t. One comment I read was pass your coll temporarily onto someone else , it doesn`t work , my friend did that with another collector and when his passion was rekindled and he wanted his insects back , the friendship was destroyed.
|
|
|
Post by lucanidae25 on Feb 29, 2012 23:45:31 GMT -8
Jack
I don't know how you can maintain a commercial insect buisiness in Australia now. It must be really hard for you to make a living from it. You will even make so much more money on a car washing buisiness. We have the least numbers of collectors in Australia comparing the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Also there's no job even if you have entomology degrees. I really commend you never stop trying for all these years. I would've gave up a long time ago. Wish you all the luck.
|
|